Movies: Past, present and future

Penelope Cruz has enjoyed a long and fruitful cinematic relationship with filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, and the actress is looking to make “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” magic happen again with a role in Woody Allen’s next film. Now she aims to add another director -– and country –- to her resume of repeat collaborations.

Cruz, who gets her biggest Hollywood turn to date with a starring role opposite Johnny Depp in next month’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," is set to reunite with Italian director Sergio Castellitto. She'll star in his war tale “Venuto al Mondo," and while there have been reports for more than a year of her involvement, Cruz says the movie is now a priority and that she hopes to make it one of her next projects.

In 2004, the Spanish actress starred in Castellitto’s melodrama “Don’t Move." In the auteur's new film, she'll play a single mother who brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where the boy’s father died during the Balkan War. The film is based on an Italian bestseller.

The part is a switch for Cruz, who has until now mostly been sliding between Hollywood- and Spain-based movies. “I like that it’s a movie that’s not Spanish or English,” she told 24 Frames. "I love this part of the job that lets you become someone else with a different nationality.” She paused, “I guess I have to start studying Italian again.”